11 No-Bake Cookie Recipes to Make When You're Too Impatient for an Oven

Kelly Dawson is a writer and editor who focuses on architecture, interior design, and culture. She regularly contributes to Architectural Digest's vertical Clever and Domino, and she's been writing for Dwell Magazine since 2015.

As satisfying as it is to bite into a perfectly sweet, delectable gooey cookie, the process it takes to bake one can often feel way too labor-intensive. It requires measuring and sifting, then mixing and scooping. And by the time a baking sheet of cookies actually enters the oven, you still have to wait for them to bake and cool. It's enough to make anyone's patience hit a limit.

For those days that you want this sweet without much effort, try making one of these 11 no-bake cookie recipes. Not only will they placate your patience, but their chocolate, peanut butter, and coconut flavors may convince you that a cookie no longer needs an oven to be satisfying. Just imagine how many more you can eat with this extra time.

Vegan Peanut Butter

The Minimalist Baker

The Fixings: All of nine simple ingredients form this recipe from the Minimalist Baker, and include the irresistible likes of maple syrup, coconut oil, sea salt, vegan dark chocolate, and natural peanut butter. Everything comes together in about 20 minutes and can keep for up to five days.

Dark Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookie Bars

Half Baked Harvest

The Fixings: Dates are the key ingredient behind this Half Baked Harvest recipe, which sweetens these cookie bars and binds its other inclusions—like old-fashioned oats, plain quinoa, and dark chocolate—together. Don't forget to top it all with sea salt, too.

Helpful Tip: "Roasted cashews are kind of my secret ingredient," recipe creator Tieghan says. "They do have to be roasted, though, so no swapping there. Their flavor is awesome, and they grind up to a smooth paste perfectly."

Mint Cookies

A Couple Cooks

The Fixings: If you're the type of person who waits all year to purchase mint cookies from the Girl Scouts, it's probably time to learn how to make your own so you can eat them whenever the craving strikes. This no-bake option from The Spruce Eats features Andes candies, peppermint extract, and chocolate chips, as well as some help from a microwave.

Helpful Tip: "Feel free to use whatever type of chocolate wafer cookies you prefer," Linda of The Spruce Eats says. "Note that there are wafers out there that have a chocolate-mint flavor to them. That's what we used, and boy were they a spectacular treat!"

Dark Chocolate Tahini Cookies

A Couple Cooks

The Fixings: This recipe from A Couple Cooks has the quality of looking like you worked real hard in the kitchen, but really, it took no more than 30 minutes to put this together. Tahini, coconut oil, maple syrup, and cinnamon are just a few of the decadent ingredients in one cookie, which are formed in cupcake liners and frozen for 20 minutes.

Helpful Tip: "Because of the coconut oil, the tahini no-bake cookies are not shelf stable, so store them in the refrigerator or freezer," recipe creator Sonja says.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut

Food Faith Fitness

The Fixings: Coconut milk, coconut sugar, and coconut oil are mixed in with the lead ingredients of this recipe from Food Faith Fitness, which makes the taste of one bite transport you to an island getaway. But frankly, the fact that you can get in and out of the kitchen with these in about a half hour is equally transformative, too.

Helpful Tip: "Do not boil your sugar and milk combination for too long," Taylor of Food Faith Fitness says. "This will cause your cookies to not have the sticky quality necessary for, you know, holding together. You want it thick, but still fluid, kind of like honey."

Coconut and Turmeric Cookies

Food Faith Fitness

The Fixings:Food Faith Fitness also whipped up this inventive recipe in about 10 minutes, and it has a bunch of healthy ingredients—like ground turmeric, coconut oil, and almond butter—to justify eating all 10 cookies in one sitting. Dairy-free chocolate chips add just enough sweetness to every bite, too.

Helpful Tip: "Once the mixture is firm, tightly pack the coconut flakes into a cookie scoop and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet," Taylor says. "Refrigerate for at least one hour, or until firm."

Pumpkin Cream Chocolate Cookies

Half Baked Harvest

The Fixings: We think that pumpkin-flavored cookies are so good you shouldn't have to wait until fall to eat them. And this recipe from My Food and Happiness pairs it well with dark chocolate, maple syrup, dates, and cashews. Use a food processor to make it all that much quicker.

Helpful Tip: "If you wish, you can create some additional decorations on top with some melted dark or white chocolate and an icing bag," Monika, the recipe creator, says.

Chocolate, Cherry, and Chia Seed Cookie Bars

Foodie Crush

The Fixings: While this recipe appears on the Foodie Crush, it actually hails from Alanna Taylor-Tobin of the food blog The Bojon Gourmet—but we'll follow it wherever it goes. Thanks to room temperature almond butter, fine sea salt, rolled oats, and the flavors that give the bars its name, this is a treat you can eat at any time of day.

Helpful Tip: "Flaky sea salt brings out the flavor of the chocolate even more, but be careful how heavy handed you go; they can get too salty with too much of a sprinkle," Heidi says.

Salted Caramel Coconut Macaroons

Foodie Crush

The Fixings: Shredded coconut, melted caramels, and salted butter combine in this easy recipe from Life, Love, and Sugar, which can make two dozen macaroons when you're finished. The dipped-chocolate bottoms may be our favorite part since it balances out the sprinkle of sea salt on the top.

Helpful Tip: "I used almond bark, since it melts so nice and smooth, but there are several melting chocolate options at most stores," Lindsay of Life, Love, and Sugar says.

Samoas

Half Baked Harvest

The Fixings: Like the aforementioned mint cookies, this take on the classic Girl Scout favorite from Hayley of The Domestic Rebel makes it easy to eat one of these treats year-round. Heavy cream, toasted coconut, and a package of shortbread cookies are mixed together for a familiar taste in a half hour.

Helpful Tip: "Working quickly, drop tablespoonfuls of the coconut caramel mixture onto each cookie, spreading it out to cover the surface of the cookie," Hayley says. "Repeat with the remaining cookies until all of the cookies are covered."

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Cookies

Foodie Crush

The Fixings: If you have 15 minutes to spare in your schedule, then you have enough time to make this recipe from Maria of Two Peas and Their Pod. Pretzels, unsweetened cocoa, old-fashioned oats, and peanut butter combine to make a salty-sweet cookie that is too good to resist.

Helpful Tip: "I especially love these no-bake cookies because the pretzels go so well with the chocolate, peanut butter, and oats," Maria says. "I also add sea salt to the recipe and sprinkle a little sea salt on top."